SBIR Phase II: Liquid Crystal-based Next Generation e-paper Devices by Micro-engineered Surfaces

SBIR 第二阶段：微工程表面的基于液晶的下一代电子纸设备

• 批准号: 1230389
• 负责人: Hailiang Zhang
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Hitron Technologies Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-10-01 至 2015-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1230389&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Liquid; Crystal

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project focuses on development of low power consumption, bistable memory nematic liquid crystal display (LCD) devices for e-book and mobile applications, based on the micro-engineered surface alignment (MESA) technology. The MESA-LCD innovatively implements new photoaligment materials and processes, combined with unique maskless UV pattern generator, to achieve bistability and performance requirements for portable devices. It is suitable for mass production and also on flexible substrates, also compatible with existing manufacturing infra-structure of LCDs. In Phase-I, the controlled weak anchoring have been successfully demonstrated, and the process has been developed to reduce the driving voltage by one order of magnitude. The main challenge in Phase-II is to reduce the driving voltage down to 0.1v/ìm. The main objectives and approaches in Phase-II are: (1) to develop a passive matrix MESA-LCD prototype (the first generation) for presenting to the potential investors; (2) to optimize the photoalignment process for driving voltage reduction, (3) to develop an active matrix MESA-LCD prototype (second generation) with the optimized photoalignment material and process, with establishment of large scale manufacturing processes. Anticipated Phase-II results would be the successful development of MESA-LCD prototypes for commercialization. The broader impacts/commercial potential will be that the MESA-LCD related technologies will benefit from the low power, high contrast ratio and high resolution. Success of this project will enable a high performance and low cost MESA-LCD that have a significant market opportunity in mobile devices to bring users information and Entertainment, offer users a convergent display experience, with paper-like readability, significantly less power consumption, and video-rate response times. The most important market the MESA-LCD addresses is e-paper and e-book market. When the MESA-LCD based e-book and e-paper are fully developed, one device can hold tens or hundreds of books or content, decreasing the burden of students' backpacks, saving bookshelf space, and reducing shipping costs. Also huge amount of paper will be saved, which is a good contribution to the environment. Besides the e-book and e-paper market, MESA-LCD can also be used in various applications such as price tag and sale-announcement displays on shelves and throughout the retail stores, cell phones and other hand-hold devices, display products for security and hospitality, and display for industrial controls.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）II期项目着重于基于微工程表面对齐（MESA）技术的低功耗，可为电子书和移动应用程序开发用于电子书和移动应用的设备。 MESA-LCD创新地实现了新的光化材料和过程，并结合了独特的无面膜UV模式生成器，以达到便携式设备的双稳定性和性能要求。它适用于质量生产，也适用于柔性底物，也与现有的LCD制造基础设施兼容。在第1阶段，已成功证明了受控的弱锚定，并且已经开发了该过程以减少一个数量级的驾驶电压。第三阶段的主要挑战是将驱动电压降低到0.1V/m。第三阶段的主要目标和方法是：（1）开发一个被动矩阵Mesa-LCD原型（第一代），用于向潜在的投资者展示； （2）为了优化降低电压的光关调过程，（3）使用优化的光关押材料和过程，开发有效的矩阵Mesa-LCD原型（第二代），并建立了大型制造过程。预期的II期结果将是用于商业化的MESA-LCD原型的成功发展。更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是与MESA-LCD相关的技术将受益于低功率，高对比度和高分辨率。该项目的成功将使高性能和低成本的MESA-LCD在移动设备中具有很大的市场机会，从而为用户提供信息和娱乐，为用户提供收敛的显示体验，具有纸张的可读性，较少的功耗和视频速度响应时间。 MESA-LCD地址最重要的市场是电子纸和电子书市场。当基于MESA-LCD的电子书和电子纸完全开发时，一种设备可以容纳数十或数百本书或内容，减少学生背包的燃烧，节省书架空间并降低运输成本。还将保存大量纸张，这是对环境的良好贡献。除了电子书和电子纸市场外，MESA-LCD还可以用于各种应用中，例如价格标签和销售销售显示器，在货架上以及整个零售店，手机和其他手工持有的设备，用于安全性和酒店的产品以及用于工业控制的产品。